CB360 Composite National Rankings #8 – April 7

The teams comprising the top-10 in CB360’s exclusive Composite National Rankings (CNR) remain unchanged from the previous week, with four of those teams occupying the same positions (Arizona St., UCLA and Virginia in the 1-2-3 spots, along with #9 Florida). Georgia Tech bumped up one spot to #4 while three others – current #5 Louisville, #6 Arkansas and #8 Texas – each moved up two positions in the CNR. Florida State (#4 to #10) nearly fell out of the top-10, with LSU slipping back one spot to #7. (front-page photo courtesy of Arkansas)

The current CNR formula, which now is slated to be expanded next week, continues to consist of six national polls and four RPI-type ratings – meaning that 10 different groups of “experts” (spanning coaches, media and computers) have combined to produce this composite top-50.Teams rising or falling in the CNR can be attributed to results from the previous week and/or the effect of the various RPI calculations. (Note – scroll to end of this release for detailed description of the CNR).

COMPOSITE NATIONAL RANKINGS (CNR) CRITERIA – CB360’s 100-point Composite National Rankings formula currently is centered around six national polls – USA Today/ESPN (coaches poll), NCBWA (writers), Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, Rivals and Ping!Baseball – along with four RPI-type ratings (Boyd Nation’s ISR and pseudo-RPI, plus Warren Nolan’s RPI and NRPI). Teams receive points based on their standings in each poll/rating (60 pts for #1, 59 for #2, etc.). For polls involving voting points (coaches and CB) and the RPI ratings, the CNR adjusts to reward teams that have larger margins in the voting/point totals (whereas two teams with nearly the same voting-point total will be closer in the CNR allotment for that poll). Note that strength-of-schedule typically is factored into RPI formulations … thus the actual SOS numbers are not used in the CNR when RPI already are in the mix.

The 10 core factors are averaged, with 40 points then added to each total to yield the 100-point benchmark.

The CNR top-50 currently combines a collection of 10 “experts” to provide a projection of the 2010 NCAA Championship field (hypothetically 50 teams, plus 14 others from lower-rated automatic-bid conferences – those teams will be projected in upcoming CNR updates). Later in the season, other factors – such as NCAA-field predictions and “last-10-games” records – will be included in the CNR formula.